Editor's Note God’s plan is better than mine By Darcy L. Fargo

February 16, 2022

God’s plan is better than mine.

In October of 2002, I started dating a shy, charming photographer who had just ended his employment with The Malone Telegram, the newspaper for which I was working at the time.

While I thought the relationship had potential, I was at a point in my life where I really wasn’t sure what I wanted, and I didn’t think I was ready to “settle down.”

I was honest with this shy photographer, and I told him what my experience in the couple years prior had taught me:
“I have a three-month rule,” I said. “I’ll date someone for three months, and then I’ll figure out some reason why I can’t spend the rest of my life with him. It might be something big. It might be something small. For example, I once dated a guy who bites his fork when he eats. I couldn’t live with that for the rest of my life. I ended that relationship.”

That photographer was the first man I dated to whom I explained my “three-month rule.”

Again, God’s plan is better than mine.

Three months after that first October date, that photographer and I were engaged to be married. While I’m not sure I would suggest others follow our path and get engaged after three months, we’re pretty sure it’s the path God called us to follow. Twenty years later, God continues to bring us closer together and strengthen our love for one another.

As we celebrate National Marriage Week (Feb. 7 to 14), we remember that we are “Called to the Joy of Love.”
I’ve found great joy in love. I’m fairly certain we all find great joy when we’re following God’s call.
I’m not going to say it’s been all sunshine and roses. It hasn’t. We’ve experienced challenges and tough times. While we always love one another, there are moments when we don’t particularly like each other (I don’t like anyone until I’m sufficiently caffeinated in the morning).

Even in those trying times, there’s joy in knowing we’re committed to one another and committed to living out the marriage to which we’ve been called by our God.

And there’s joy in knowing that God’s plan is better than mine.